Ethan Dodd – Visual Artist. Cardiff, Wales

May 6, 2014

Final Piece Evaluation; The Enso Circles

The Enso circles were a very interesting piece indeed, and a lot different than a lot of work I have done before; It is a rather simple piece, and is more of an arrangement of materials than an actual crafting of pieces through my own hands. However, I am actually quite happy to be working in this way, as I believe that through the acquisition of both the stones, and the act of cleaning and arranging them, I have created my own personal form of meditation. I have experimented with the aspects of creation and repetition of a certain object before in my Cocoon project last year, in which I created over 800 different cocoons through a period of a few days, and as I created and ruminated upon each object, I felt my own issues and demons begin to fade away; I feel like I have continued such a motif in this piece of work, as my continuing visits to Penarth beach only served to develop and strengthen both my spiritual bonds to this place, as well as my own inner spirituality, and the resulting sanctity I felt from this.

Through the completion of this piece, I actually felt a great relief wash over me; the resulting completion of each circle in the ‘Trinity’ actually made me feel more accomplished in my work, and drove me to reflect far more upon both my own skills, as well as my overall personal life. I feel like it is a rather simplistic piece, and worry that becaus e of this, it is mundane; but to me, it has a very deep meaning, and I hope that this sense of ‘Spacial Sanctity’ is reserved for the viewer as well as myself, the Artist. I believe that a lot of refinement could be done with this piece, as I am not happy with it’s current placement in the studio; It could either be placed on Penarth beach as a ‘Site-Specific’ work, or could be placed in a space where the sun can actually reflect off of the white stones; as this blesses them with an ethereal glow, a whiteness that is not often seen in nature, and allows them to gain a certain radiance; not unlike those holy objects detailed in Scripture.

However, I am happy with this piece; it’s relation to the Shrine holds strong, and effectively details my development through this term; both in skills, as well as conceptual understanding.